A builder-backed PAC is airing a new TV spot criticizing Gov. Chris Gregoire for approving a major expansion for tribal casinos. The 30-second spot, “Giveaway,” is the first TV ad from It’s Time For a Change,” the PAC funded by the Building Industry Association of Washington, the Farm Bureau, the NFIB-Washington and others that back Republican Dino Rossi for governor.

The ad shows an elderly woman frustrated while playing a slot machine. A narrator talks about the deal Gregoire killed with tribes in 2005 that would have required revenue sharing as well as for the final agreement that allowed more slot machines in tribal casinos.

As the old lady loses her patience with the slot machine, the narrator says,

Sorry dear, Christine Gregoire and tribal casinos are the only winners here.

Note: The ad keeps up the strong trend of the campaign, a female narrator and a female on screen.

Yesterday, after Gregoire’s media buyer spotted the Change PAC buy, the campaign sent out a prophylactic press release predicting the TV spot would follow the same theme of radio ads the PAC has aired.

All of this is in addition to the $500,000 that Rossi’s anti-consumer protection, anti-toxic clean-up friends have already spent on radio ads disparaging and manipulating Gov. Gregoire’s record.

"While Dino Rossi tries to hide the fact he's a George Bush Republican on the ballot, his biggest supporters, Olympia's most powerful special interest lobbyists, continue to spend what seems to be an unlimited amount on false and misleading attack ads," said Aaron Toso, press secretary for the Gregoire campaign.

Dino Rossi’s campaign misused the mailing list of the minor league baseball team he is a part owner of to solicit donations to his gubernatorial effort. The invitation to a “NIGHT OF GREAT FOOD AND EXCITING AQUASOX BASEBALL” was followed up by an e-mail from the Everett team’s majority owners offering their “deepest and most sincere apology” for the violation of the team’s privacy policy.

The Everett AquaSox are the Mariner’s Class A affiliate. Rossi, along with former Mariner star Jay Buhner, were among seven who bought minority shares of the team in April, 2007.

The Rossi campaign invitation to the fundraiser was e-mailed to people on the team's mailing list. It invited people to join Rossi's Snohomish County finance committee for a $100 per person, or $200 per family, fundraiser at the Everett ballpark on July 7. The team plays the Yakima Bears that night.

After complaints from team fans, an e-mail was sent by Peter A. and Peter E. Carfagna, the father and son whose family is the majority owner of the team. It said, in part:

We recently learned that our personal privacy policy was compromised in an attempt to solicit your support for a partisan political fundraiser.

In that regard, on behalf of our family ownership group, we would like to express our sincere apologies.

Although we did not authorize this communication nor were we aware of it in advance, we have justifiably received numerous complaints from you expressing your displeasure. We take full responsibility and again beg your pardon.

We take your personal privacy seriously. We will remain vigilant in protecting your e-mail address from solicitors and vendors. We are taking immediate steps to ensure an incident like this never happens again.

I've asked the Rossi campaign if the candidate knew about the use of the AquaSox mailing list.

UPDATE: Rossi spokeswoman Jill Strait responds:

Our Snohomish County Finance Chair Tom Hoban, who is also a part owner of the AquaSox, requested the list from the AquaSox General Manager, who then gave a list of e-mails to one of our campaign staffers. The campaign believed that since we had received the list from AquaSox management, we had permission to send an e-mail about the upcoming event. We were wrong. It is our fault for not double checking. Dino Rossi was unaware that the list had been requested or used. We apologize to AquaSox fans who received this e-mail.